07/31/2013

It
seems like a break in tradition that the mainstream media will not be whooping
it up to celebrate the anniversary of the final days of Watergate and the House Judiciary Committee’s approved and sent
to the whole House three articles of
impeachment against President Richard M. Nixon.

It
is one of the most dramatic political reversals in American history, 29 years
ago this summer Watergate drove Nixon from the White House he was reelected to
less than two years before, winning 49 of 50 states.

The
president resigned Aug. 9, 1974, after he no longer had the support in the
Senate to fend off an impeachment, which was the indictment with the actual
trial conducted in the upper chamber.

The
reason the mainstream media is dialing back an episode that confirmed its place
as the fourth estate and an organic player in governing is that the charges the
Democrats lodged against Nixon are too damn close to how President Barack Obama
and his White House does business.

The
first article of impeachment dealt with how Nixon responded the June 17, 1972
break-in to the offices of the Democratic National Committee housed at the
Watergate Hotel complex.

There
was no evidence ever presented that Nixon knew anything about the burglary, so
the Democrats charged the president with using his office to personally—and
through his staff- delay, impede and obstruct the investigation into the
break-in.

In
subsections of Article 1, Nixon and his staff were accused of giving false or
misleading statements in congressional and judicial testimony and to
investigators, leaking information from Justice Department investigations to
help others adjust their stories or cover their tracks and rewarding witnesses
for false or silent testimony.

The
first article was approved by the committee July 27, 1974, with six Republicans
joining all 21 Democrats for a 27 to 11 tally. Procedurally, the Democrats only
needed one article to move forward and when he learned it passed, Speaker
Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill Jr., (D-Mass.) predicted the House would impeach Nixon
by 50 votes.

Two
days later, the Judiciary Committee, led by Rep. Jack B. Brooks (D.-Texas)
passed two more articles.

In
Article 2, the Democrats accused Nixon of accessing private tax records from the IRS and directing the IRS to
audit, investigate and otherwise harass political opponents.

What?
Really?

The
second article also accused Nixon of using the electronic
surveillance and the resources of the FBI to spy on Americans without national
security or law enforcement justification.

The
third article dealt with Nixon’s claims of executive privilege. On four
occasions, the Nixon White House failed to comply with subpoenas from the
Judiciary Committee.

This
quote from Article 3 could have been written this morning:

“In refusing to
produce these papers and things Richard M. Nixon, substituting his judgment as
to what materials were necessary for the inquiry, interposed the powers of the
Presidency against the lawful subpoenas of the House
of Representatives, thereby assuming to himself functions and judgments
necessary to the exercise of the sole power
of impeachment vested by the Constitution in the House of Representatives.”

President
Barack Obama’s press secretary James “Jay” Carney insists the White House has
complied with all legitimate inquires included in subpoenas issued by the
House. Attorney General
Eric H. Holder Jr., has made the exact same case in his testimony before House
committees.

But,
this is really the same thing as Nixon deciding what information he gave up and
what he did not.

It
has been two months since Obama’s promise to fully investigate the IRS’s
predatory handling of Tea Party groups, 10 months from the Sept. 11, 2012
attacks on Benghazi and two-and-half years since Border Patrol Agent Brian A.
Terry was cut down by an AK-47 waived through to a straw purchaser for a
Mexican crime gang by the ATF’s Fast and Furious team.

Does
anyone believe the White House is forthright in coming clean?

The
Republican leadership on Capitol Hill was brainwashed in a bunker somewhere in
West Virginia to believe any confrontation with a Democratic president, let
alone an impeachment, would be unpopular with the American people.

Unfortunately,
that paradigm will never be tested.

But,
what we do see is that the liberals running
the mainstream media recognize enough similarities between the behavior of the
Obama White House and what Democrats claimed in 1974 was so egregious that
Nixon had to be removed from office.